Kolkata, Oct 27 The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is probing the multi-crore teachers' recruitment scam in West Bengal, is now investigating a new angle of irregularities concerning the offline registration in different Diploma in Elementary Education(D.El.Ed) colleges in the state against payment of money.
As per the ED officials, the candidates going for offline registration in some private D.El.Ed colleges in West Bengal had to pay Rs 5,000 each, a portion of which went to the kitty of Trinamool Congress legislator and former president of West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE), Manik Bhattacharya.
Bhattacharya is currently under judicial custody for his alleged involvement in the primary teachers' recruitment scam in the state.
In this connection, the ED has summoned Manik Bhattacharya's close associate Tapas Kumar Mondal, who used to run such institutions under the garb of NGOs, namely Minerva Educational and Welfare Society, Kamakhya Balak Ashram and Kamakhya Institute of Education for questioning at the agency's office on November 2.
The ED sources said that Mondal is the president of All Bengal Teachers' Training Achievers' Association (ABTTAA), an umbrella organisation of such private D.El.Ed colleges, which conduct diploma courses on primary teachers' training. ED sources said that it is a matter of investigation whether these candidates going for offline registration in such private candidates got appointed as primary teachers at a later stage. "For that purpose, the interrogation of Tapas Kumar Mondal is extremely important since he is privy to important information on this count," they said.
To recall, on October 24, ED's counsel Feroze Edulji informed a lower court in Kolkata that following preliminary investigation the central agency has traced property worth Rs 10 crore owned by Bhattacharya and his family members.
Edulji informed that ED sleuths have traced Rs 3 crore from a bank account held jointly by Manik Bhattacharya's wife, Satarupa Bhattacharya and a deceased person named Mrityunjoy Chakraborty.
The ED's counsel also informed the court that a compact disc was recovered from the residence of Manik Bhattacharya which contained the names of 4,000 individuals.
On cross-checking with WBBPE authorities, the central agency officials confirmed that 2,500 out of that 4,000 have secured jobs as primary teachers.
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